


How to Build A Doctor Detector In Seven Easy Steps Or Less

by scifinut



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-08
Updated: 2011-09-08
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scifinut/pseuds/scifinut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack, the Doctor's hand, and a little luck. Set during "The Christmas Invasion"</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Build A Doctor Detector In Seven Easy Steps Or Less

Jack flopped back into his hotel room bed. It had been over a century, at least for him, since he had last seen the Doctor. Now the Sycorax were invading, the Prime Minister was publicly asking for him, and the Doctor was still nowhere to be found. He sighed. UNIT was probably messing this one up. Or worse yet, Torchwood London. Jack wasn't stupid enough to believe that they'd just be sitting idly by, but they would only do things their way.

Another sigh. A fine Christmas this was turning out to be. He finally got away from Cardiff, only to have this follow him. Suzie was never going to let him live this down. But it was still Christmas Day, and he fully intended to take advantage of the weather, if not the scenery. People lining rooftops just didn't seem like holiday spirit.

He headed downstairs, wishing he could slam the rotating glass doors behind him. Wishing he could do anything to help these people. A third of the world, waiting to jump.

"Why don't you just do it?" he bellowed. It earned him some glares from the crowd, but Jack had long since stopped caring what strangers thought of him. "Do it!" he yelled even louder. "Jump! Either that or get the hell down! I won't have my only vacation ruined by some byproduct of a damn alien invasion!"

Out of nowhere, a bystander turned and punched his face. "Didn't you hear?" he asked angrily. "Don't you know? They're not themselves!"

"I know," Jack replied, just as hotly. "But if they can't hear me, maybe the Sycorax can. Jump or back the hell down!" he resumed screaming.

As quickly as it had started, all of the people lining the rooftops shook their heads and started backing away from the edges. Another man came up and clapped Jack's shoulder. "Cheers, mate. Not sure what you did, but you just saved Christmas."

"Yeah, cheers," he replied halfheartedly. Whatever had happened hadn't been his fault, and Christmas hadn't yet been saved. There was still a giant spaceship hovering over London. What a holiday this was turning out to be. Luckily it was still early and the weather was still nice. His mobile hadn't rung yet, so apparently nobody had asked his branch of Torchwood for help yet. Not that London could handle this, but if he was doomed to be the sole survivor of a global apocalypse, he'd enjoy one last walk through London.

Jack lost himself in the walk. After this morning's scare, everyone had gone inside, leaving the streets eerily quiet. That was okay, he enjoyed the quiet, it gave him time to think. His thoughts were eventually of the Doctor and Rose. How they were. If they ever thought of him. If they ever made it back to London.

There was a loud clattering above and Jack looked up, instantly scanning for danger. The first thing he noticed was the sword falling straight toward him. The second was the pain as it pierced his bones. The third, several minutes later, was the headache that always came about from undying, as he had taken to calling it.

He looked down and saw a hand. A hand that was definitely not his. A hand with a sword. He had a hand with a sword on his chest. And it was wiggling. The hand, not the sword.

The sword and hand fell to the ground as Jack stood up. He bent to pick them up and was quite surprised when the hand gripped his, as though shaking it. When he tried to dislodge it, it squeezed tightly, recalcitrant to let go. "Hey there, buddy. Easy, easy. It's okay." It felt odd, soothing a dismembered animate hand. "I'm gonna take care of you, find out who you belong to, and take you home."

\--

  
That night Jack took the train home to Cardiff. He held the hand gently in his own and wondered how it had come to him. If it were a Sycorax hand, it wouldn't have seemed so ill fitting on a Sycorax sword. If it had been a human hand, it would have been bloody and dead. The Sycorax ship was gone when he had woken up, which meant that they had been defeated.

The rest of the trip he thought about the Doctor. And it was then that he noticed the hand becoming less and less active. "Hey, hey, hey, don't give up. Come on, hang in there. Hold on, okay?" He didn't realize until after he had said it how awkward it was, telling a dying hand to hold on.

The hand twisted around to give Jack a thumb up and Jack grinned. By the time he got off the train in Cardiff, though, the hand had gone still. It wasn't dead. At least not in the sense that most dismembered hands would be dead. It was more like asleep. Something inside it was still pulsing, and something was keeping it warm. Jack was determined to find its owner. By now he was sure it was the Doctor's.

  
\--

"So you want a solution that glows and bubbles, sustains life, and glows brighter when there's more life?" Jack nodded in response. "Mate, I hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as 'more life' in something. It's alive until it's dead. End of story."

Somehow Jack managed to keep a straight face. Oh, if Owen only knew. "How much?" he asked with a wide grin.

Owen managed to look confused. "How much what?"

"How much money do you want to bet? I mean, you seem pretty confident." Years of running cons had perfected Jack's poker face. He resisted another grin as he looked at Owen's face, trying to figure out if Jack was being serious or not.

With a sigh, Owen shook his head. "You've probably got it rigged somehow. Am I supposed to design a containment system for this too?" He was imagining a coffin-sized device and wondering where he was going to get the parts and keep it without letting anyone else know.

Jack shrugged. "It would be nice, yeah." He took the hand out of the pocket of his greatcoat and handed it to Owen. "Make sure it has room to move around. I need that Doctor detector working."

Owen sputtered. "It's a hand. A human hand."

"You're the doctor." Jack gave Owen a cheeky grin.

"Then why do you need a detector?"

"Wrong kind of doctor," Jack replied, turning to leave. He spun quickly around, giving Owen a serious look. "Don't let that thing die. Or else." He spun once more and was out the door before Owen could respond.


End file.
